Development of a Post-stroke Upper Limb Rehabilitation Wearable Sensor for Use in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Pilot Validation Study

Abstract

The development of context-appropriate sensor technologies could alleviate the significant burden of stroke in Sub-Saharan African rehabilitation clinicians and health care facilities. However, many commercially available wearable sensors are beyond the financial capabilities of the majority of African persons. In this study, we evaluated the concurrent validity of a low-cost wearable sensor (i.e., the outREACH sensor) to measure upper limb movement kinematics of 31 healthy persons, using an 8-camera Vicon motion capture system as the reference standard. The outREACH sensor showed high correlation (r range: 0.808–0.990) and agreement (mean difference range: −1.60 to 1.10) with the reference system regardless of task or kinematic parameter. Moreover, Bland-Altman analyses indicated that there were no significant systematic errors present. This study indicates that upper limb movement kinematics can be accurately measured using the outREACH sensor, and have the potential to enhance stroke evaluation and rehabilitation in sub-Saharan Africa.